I am a Senior Political Contributor at Forbes and the official 'token lefty,' as the title of the page suggests. However, writing from the 'left of center' should not be confused with writing for the left as I often annoy progressives just as much as I upset conservative thinkers. In addition to the pages of Forbes.com, you can find me every Saturday morning on your TV arguing with my more conservative colleagues on "Forbes on Fox" on the Fox News Network and at various other times during the week serving as a liberal talking head on other Fox News and Fox Business Network shows. I also serve as a Democratic strategist with Mercury Public Affairs.

Election Day Live Blog And Journal

Today is the day! Now go vote! No matter which candidate has your support, if you don’t vote you don’t get to complain for the next four years!

I’ve decided to begin the live blog early in the day so that this can become a repository of interesting information that I learn throughout the day. Naturally, things will “heat up” as we get into the evening. I will be covering the election tonight from 9pm-midnight on The David Webb Show, Sirius XM Patriot Channel 125, but will live blog around the show and, if possible, through it.

I hope readers will feel free to check in throughout the day and will leave comments telling us what you are seeing and experiencing in your neck of the woods.

To start things off—the first votes of the day are in and the winner is….

8:31 a.m.

The towns of Dixville Notch, New Hampshire and Hart’s Location, New Hampshire are, traditionally, the first places the nation to cast and count their ballots on Election Day. This year was no exception.

In Dixon’s Notch, for the first time in electoral history, we have a tie. 5 votes for Obama and 5 votes for Romney.

In Hart’s Location, the president got 23 votes to Romney’s 9 with 2 votes for Libertarian Gary Johnson.

And…we’re off!

9:09 a,m.

One time Republican Governor Christy Todd Whitman is aghast at what has gone on in Florida.

As a result of the efforts of Florida Governor Rick Scott to suppress the vote in certain communities and demographics—with an assist from the GOP controlled legislature— early voting opportunities have resulted in waits of up to nine hours to vote. Says Whitman;

“”I don’t know what went on in Florida, but I do have to say that in this day and age, it’s inexcusable that in this country, we have anything like this going on.” she said. “I’ve led delegations around the world to watch voting and this is the kind of thing you expect in a third-world country, not in the United States of America.”

Despite appeals to Governor Scott to extend the hours for early voting to alleviate the pressure, Scott has refused to do so. While the GOP has worked hard to make the case that it is important to take steps to avoid in-person voter fraud, nobody can quite figure out how making Floridians stand in line for 9 hours accomplishes that effort.

Anyway you slice it, requiring people to invest so much time to cast their vote amounts to a poll tax—pure and simple. For those who believe that electing their candidate is more important than protecting our electoral system, you either don’t get what this country is supposed to be about or you just don’t care -and you know who you are. This is positively shameful. If this is the way Republicans plan on getting their hands on the reigns of power in the face of demographics that all but insure the end of their party unless they broaden the appeal, they are in for a powerful surprise.

12:00 noon

Things already getting weird in Pennsylvania where an Allegheny County judge has had to issue an order to “halt electioneering outside a polling location in Homestead.” The order states, “Individuals outside the polls are prohibited from questioning, obstructing, interrogating or asking about any form of identification and/demanding any form of identification from any prospective voter,. It seems that Republicans had been pushing people outside the polling locations to show identification. Under the current law, voters will still be asked to present IDs at the polls, but a photo ID is not required to vote.

Depressing behavior more befitting of a Banana Republic than the USofA.

2:07 p.m.

Early voting numbers are in from Ohio. Overall, counties that voted for both Barack Obama and John Kerry saw a 4.1 percent drop-off in early votes. Counties that voted for Bush and John McCain saw a 14.4 percent rise.

While this is likely troubling to Democrats, keep in mind that many Ohio counties that skew Republican tend to be rural areas with smaller population. Democratic sources tell me that they are nicely ahead on the early vote and they anticipate that Romney would have to win election day votes by a 10 percent margin to pull off the critical Ohio win.

2:15 p.m.

The final battleground state polls are out courtesy of Nate Silver’s fivethirtyeight column at the New York Times.

If these numbers are accurate, the path to victory for Governor Romney seems very difficult to accomplish.

2:28 p.m.

An Oregon election worker has been fired and is facing a criminal investigation after allegedly altering ‘multiple ballots’ to benefit Republican candidates. Sadly, and contrary to the Republican meme that only Democrats engage in voter fraud, bad behavior comes from both sides of the aisle.

3:47 p.m.

Sources are telling me that inside the Romney campaign, they are very mindful that the Obama early vote totals combined with the Democratic ground game in the state have stacked the deck against them. This is not to say that Romney cannot pull out Ohio and campaign insiders acknowledge that it is going to be exceedingly difficult to do. With the early voting numbers in Nevada tracking with what we expected based on the polls, Nevada is beginning to look pretty solid for Obama. That means that a win in either Wisconsin (where the numbers have consistently favored the President and continue to do so) or Iowa (where I am hearing that the race may be much tighter than the polls-which have favored Obama- have suggested), combined with Ohio. would put the president over the top.

6:54 p.m.

Back on line and ready to go. First polls close in a few minutes- and that includes Ohio!

8:07 p.m.

No big shockers so far. Romney looking a little better than I might have expected in some of the northern counties of Virginia. Ohio exit polls showing neck and neck race as expected.

9:28 P.M.

A big one for Obama – Wisconsin goes for Wisconsin!

10:11 Big Senate pickups for the Dems. Tammy Baldwin in Wisconsin and Elizabeth Warren in Mass.

This could turn into a suprisingly good night for the Democrats.

Things much closer in Florida than I expected with the President hanging onto a slim lead. Romney looking like a winner in Virginia.

WATCH COLORADO now.

10:27 p.m.

New Hampshire called for Obama. The path to electoral victory for Romney is getting very, very narrow.

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I just can’t believe all the people I know who actually believe Romney’s the Christian when that couldn’t be further from the truth! So my conservative, Christian friends/family are ALL voting for Romney/Ryan because they believe Obama is a Muslim….and Romney’s a Christian….when Obama’s the Christian and Romney’s NOT. Boggles my mind.

It worries me, too, that so many people on the East Coast are probably not going to be able to vote – and these are states that generally would support Obama.

It also worries me that there’s already talk of not knowing election results in some states like Ohio and Florida, for a week or two. So much hangs in the balance.

What worries me is that so many people cast their vote based on who is the better Christian. I’m sure that both of these men are ‘good Christians’ -and yes, Mormons are Christians. Maybe it would be a better idea for Americans to cast their vote based on who has the best ideas to move the nation in the right direction?

what Boggles my mind is that people are so narrow minded and uneducated about the canidates that they would vote based on religion and not on their ability.

What about Benghazi? What about our economy? What about our future? One canidate has ads with 97 year old women using the F bomb… the same canidate (Obama) also has said vote for Revenge not vote for your Country; come on, those are important issues not the religion of the canidates.

For the record I second Rick Ungar and say Mormons are Christians!

America… vote on the freedom of our country. Vote for A man who can give us real change. not what we have seen in the past four years!

I don’t think there has been a true Christian in the White House since Carter. A vote for a “Christian” is just code for a vote to restrict other people’s rights. I suppose that might work in states where there is a lot of land but few people. When you have to actually live with your other people, and caring about them is what makes a neighborhood, you need real Christian values. …and I’m an atheist. (aka raised Latin Mass Catholic.)

The one who always wins, no matter what, are the financial power elite, because they control both parties and the have their own agenda. With the 2 party system, it’s “heads they win, tails we lose”. We have been the losers for so long, we have come to accept their illusion of difference. More wars, more crushing debt, more police state, regardless of who wins. In 2016, we will be right back where we are now, claiming “everyone should vote for one guy, so the other guy won’t win”. Nothing changed from Bush to Obama, and nothing will change from Obama to Romney.

However, there is a rare and positive opportunity this election. A candidate is running that is far better for America than the Big Two. There is no chance he will win, but 5%+ voting block will elevate the Libertarian Party to Major Party status, and then we will indeed have expanded choices and can vote the financial power elite out of our government. GARY JOHNSON 2012! LIVE FREE!

I do not watch the mainstsream media because of their obvious bias in “reporting” the news. However, because I have the misfortune to have a hotmail email account, I see MSN’s website everyday. Today, they simply confirmed what I already thought about them. On the main internet page, they have misspelled the word “presidential”. I may not be the best at spelling, but one would expect a major company to at least make sure everything is spelled correctly on their website…ESPECIALLY that word, on the day of the election! How stupid can you be???

Unless you are saying that I misspelled “presidential’ -and you don’t appear to be saying that- why are you accusing me of being stupid? I mean, isn’t that pretty stupid? Do you think we have a committee to determine what everyone will write and how they should spell the world ‘presidential’? I really can’t be overly concerned whether you watch the news or not. I’m responsible for only what I write. Now, maybe you should consider not spending your time calling me stupid because MSN – an organization I have nothing to do with- misspelled a word and go vote. Or then again, maybe not.

I am all for Obama (due to his strong commitment to social issues) but he should answer this question:

How much universal healthcare is going to cost healthy people and people with pre existing conditions respectively per person per annum. the current stats are mind boggling and point to healthy individuals paying 2.7k per person per year as compared to individuals with pre existing condition of 1.3k per person per year.

this interpretation of stat is offered by table 16 and 17 of the gruber report.

this day is a bummer, I want so badly to vot ebut have no way to get there. It is to far for me to walk and the car won’t start and husband just told me he won’t be home from work in time for me to g vote. grrr

I’ve never been so proud of this country and the many million voters that showed up to vote for their rights and values, as I am today! Sorry I was unwilling to share my debit card info for a listen last night, hope it went well. Thank you Rick, for bringing an additional smile to my face today by responding to my post. :^). You have a good heart worth investing in, regardless of whether you can afford to maintain it yourself and keep your shirt on, or not.